A JAX-RPC handler is a Java™ class that performs a range of handling tasks.For example: logging messages, or transforming their contents, or terminating an incoming request. Handlers monitor messages at inbound and outbound ports, and take appropriate action depending upon the sender and content of each message.
The Java API for XML-based remote procedure calls (JAX-RPC) provides you with a standard way of developing interoperable and portable Web services. JAX-RPC is part of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4, and JAX-RPC handlers are the standard approach in Java for intercepting and filtering service messages. For more information, see the IBM® developerWorks® article Support for J2EE Web Services in WebSphere® Studio Application Developer V5.1 -- Part 3: JAX-RPC Handlers.
A JAX-RPC handler interacts with messages as they pass into and out of the service integration bus, therefore you make the handler class available to the server or cluster that hosts the inbound or outbound port for the service that you want to monitor. If you want to monitor an inbound port, make the handler class available to the server on which the endpoint listener for that port is located. If you want to monitor an outbound port, make the handler class available to the server on which the outbound port destination is localized.For more information, see Loading JAX-RPC handler classes.
To make WebSphere Application Server aware of your JAX-RPC handler, and to make the handler available for inclusion in one or more handler lists, you use the administrative console to create a new JAX-RPC handler configuration. You can configure multiple instances of a handler by creating each instance with a different handler name, and pointing to the same handler class. For more information, see Creating a new JAX-RPC handler configuration.
To enable JAX-RPC handlers to perform more complex operations they can be chained together into handler lists. The approach taken in WebSphere Application Server is therefore to apply handler lists (rather than individual handlers) at the ports, where each handler list contains one or more handlers. For more information, see Creating a new JAX-RPC handler list.